Digital Twin

Digital Twin – The greatest platform for smart mobility

The digital twin of the city combines different data sources and supports data-driven decision making. New data sources are emerging: as a result of the ongoing digitalization, urban mobility is increasingly producing data describing both the traffic and the urban environment. Installed with new sensor systems, the vehicles can become mapping platforms. Combined, these emerging data sources may form a digital twin of urban mobility.

The urban digital twin is, however, more than just a 3D model of the city!

Roots in product development – In engineering and product development a digital twin typically refers to a digital model describing a complex system. By detailed modeling, the behaviour of the system can be simulated prior to manufacturing any physical compoments.

If sensor systems are fitted to monitor existing systems, their data can be combined with a digital twin and applied in optimization and simulation of different operating scenarios. This concept can also be applied to urban environments.

The social dimension – A city is more than just the physical infrastructure. Majority of urban processes, such as urban planning, are inherently social processes involving multiple stakeholders. Therefore, replicating the physical environment in a digital form is not enough for creating an urban digital twin – the social dimension also has to be taken into account. For example, citizen feedback is a significant component of an urban digital twin.

A system of systems – Data integration is at the core of an urban digital twin. The urban digital twin becomes a system of systems that combines data from multiple different data sources, provided over standardized interfaces. Data sources can be combined in tools and dashboards supporting different urban processes. Thus, the processes can rely on up-to-date data.

Building on 3D city modeling – 3D city models are a central data asset in building urban digital twins. In Helsinki, 3D city modeling has a long history, with the first experimental 3D models being built in 1980’s. Discover the 3D city models and their history in Helsinki.

Benefits of Digital Twin

Read more about the social aspect of a digital twin and what kind of benefits it can produce:

• What is an urban digital twin?

Our projects related to the digital twin

Forum Virium Helsinki is a city innovation company with extensive experience of different EU funding instruments. Digital twins are being developed and utilized in the following projects:

• Mobility Lab Helsinki
• Liidi2
• Regions4Climate
• URBANAGE
• Spotted

Photo: Flow Festival / Jussi Hellsten